ModNation Racers

ModNation Racers from 2010 by United Front Games is a kart racing game that adds extensive content-creation options to fast arcade racing. In a detailed editor, players can design their own racers, vehicles, and entire race tracks, which they then share with other players online, rating and downloading each other's creations. The racing itself builds on standard genre elements — drifting, collecting power-ups, and combat weapons against opponents — but the emphasis on creativity and community content made the game stand out from the competition. The career mode also guided players through gradually unlocking new editor parts, so creation and racing went hand in hand. The game thus built on a philosophy similar to LittleBigPlanet, just transplanted into the kart racing genre, where player creativity showed not only in the tracks but also in the look of the racers and vehicles.

On PlayStation 3, the game benefited from exclusive access to the console's power, letting it offer colorful, detailed tracks and smooth animation even with a large number of racers on screen. The presentation was tuned to a light-hearted, cartoonish style with bold character and vehicle graphics, complemented by an energetic soundtrack supporting the arcade racing pace. The editor was designed so that even a player with no experience of similar tools could handle it, yet it still let more experienced creators build surprisingly elaborate and technically demanding circuits.

Reviews of ModNation Racers praised especially the depth of the track editor, which was compared to similar tools from LittleBigPlanet, and the game earned a loyal community of content creators. Although its pure racing mechanics didn't reach the quality of the genre's biggest names, the combination of creation and racing made it a distinctive title of the PlayStation 3 generation. Today the game is an interesting reminder of a time when games with user-generated content were only just becoming established as a full-fledged phenomenon, and platforms like PlayStation Network were learning to support such content long-term.

Why play it: For players interested in creating their own content who will appreciate a track editor comparable in depth to LittleBigPlanet, even though the pure racing mechanics don't match the genre's biggest names.